Türkiye seizes assets of FTX's former CEO, affiliates
Nov 24, 2022
Ankara [Turkey], November 24: Turkish authorities have seized the assets of FTX's former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried amid a probe into the major cryptocurrency exchange, the Turkish Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) said on Wednesday.
Assets of FTX affiliates have been seized as well, said the MASAK statement, adding its investigation has found "strong criminal suspicion" of FTX's misconduct in the crypto-assets market, including fabricating buying and selling transactions, MASAK said in a statement.
MASAK added the company is also highly suspicious of transferring clients' trust assets to other parties through irregular transactions.
The Bahamas-based FTX announced on Nov. 11 that the company and its branches had filed for bankruptcy in the United States. On the same day, its founder and chief executive Bankman-Fried resigned.
The crypto trading platform, which once had 32 billion U.S. dollars in valuation, encountered a liquidity squeeze a few days ago after a shortfall of around 8 billion dollars was revealed.
FTX's blowup has left huge losses in several institutional investment houses and triggered probes in several countries, with a focus on the misuse of clients' funds to trade at Alameda Research, a crypto trading firm owned by Bankman-Fried.
Source: Xinhua
